Life Is But A Joke
by Perdyta
Summary: This is a writing meme that I found on my friends list on livejournal. Inside you'll find a series of connected drabbles featuring Lydia/Betel Geuse prompted by random songs on my music player.


_**The Rules:**__  
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.  
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.  
3. Write a drabble/ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!  
4. Do ten of these, then post them._

**FANDOM:** Beetle Juice, movie!verse  
**CHARACTER/PAIRING:** Lydia/Betel Geuse  
**HIGHEST RATING:** Sort of R, I suppose? Maybe.  
**SONGS USED:** The Scientist, Who Are You?, Crushed, You Sexy Thing, Beverly Hills, If You Leave, The Information, Ball Biscuit, Freak on a Leash, Give a Man a Home,

**Author's Note:** Since there's no lingering these aren't edited, which was hard for me... I like to edit and edit and edit until I go crazy but I also like doing writing memes to get off my lazy ass. Also, I kept getting my goofy songs and I didn't really want this to be a crack fic so I cheated a couple of times, maybe next time I will make a playlist with my goofy songs only though just to make a goofy fic since I do love those. I rambled, sorry! Enjoy!

**1. Coldplay - The Scientist (5:11)**

Lydia was pacing again. It was a habit Delia told her was going to give her a mental break down just like her father but Lydia didn't listen. She never listened anymore.

All she could was pace and bury herself under her bed covers where she hoped her crying wouldn't be heard. Had Adam and Barbara lied to her just to set her at ease? They had said her photographs had been perfect, stunning and beautiful but it became obvious they were the only ones who felt that way in her photographs did not even get an honorable mention in the contest at the fair.

It never bothered her to go unnoticed but she had cared so much about this, more than she cared about almost anything and this hurt wasn't welcomed. This miserable feeling in her gut needed to leave and never come back.

Throwing her covers back for air, Lydia looked over at her bedside table where her mirror was perched. Sniffling, she squinted at the movement there.

"Betel Geuse." She said with certainty, but not ready to say it twice more. He was watching her and trying to be sneaky about it.

"Hey babes. How about you let me outta here?" He was smirking at her and Lydia arched an eyebrow at him.

He could be a good distraction... and despite how angry Adam and Barbara would be maybe she didn't mind anymore. Maybe it would help if they all went back to the start.

**2. The Who - Who Are You (6:24)**

Betel walked out of the Waiting Room with confidence despite the many tickets he now carried in his pockets. Those tickets didn't matter, they didn't make him who he was. He was Betel Geuse, the Bio-Exorcist and whatever Juno said didn't mean a damn thing. He was freelance. He was his own person.

The Neitherworld could go to Hell for all he cared. It wasn't his home and it never had been. He was born in the real world and that's where he died, Neitherworld was just an inconvenience and he was done just putting up with it.

It took years to get one smuggled in but time he had to spare. Dusting off the mirror when he was alone, Betel frowned when he saw there was no reflection there. He wondered what he looked like. An old girlfriend of his had sketched his likeness on her wall but she had gotten too clingy after that and that had been centuries ago. He could no longer recall the image.

Taking himself out of reminiscing, Betel tilted his head towards the mirror trying to think how he could use this. The shape of the thing was nice and suited him, the freelance Bio-Exorcist Betel Geuse, very well.

Maybe if he could figure out how to use this thing he could talk that Lydia girl into completing the wedding ceremony with him, he was probably just her type after all.

The longer he stared into the mirror, the more the reflection of his surroundings seemed to change. They were changing into a girlish looking bed. There was a lump in the middle of it that sounded like it was sniffling.

Suddenly the covers were thrown back and his eyes widened when he saw a very adult looking Lydia and he stepped away from the mirror.

Slowly, he leaned back into view and smirked sheepishly when he said her name.

At his request to call him over she raised an eyebrow and responded with simply, "I'll think about it."

That was really all he could ask for.

**3. Collide - Crushed (5:20)**

Though Lydia never prided herself with being especially quick, it didn't take long to realize how eager Betel Geuse was to come to her world. Or 'his world' according to him which Lydia was not real sure she could picture him on her side along with all the other mortals.

And despite how wrong she knew it was she found his jokes and frantic personality amusing and counted the minutes down at school until it was time for work and then she counted the minutes at work until it was time to race her bike back home and call Betel Geuse's name only once.

He hated that, the way she teased him but she told him it was her own form of revenge. Betel had said that was a pretty pathetic attempt and offered to show her a thing or two on the art of revenge, something he was very familiar with.

Lydia only laughed and Betel smirked. A part of Lydia was aware of how out of control this was all getting, the way she would listen for Adam and Barbara and stop giggling if she suspected them listening in. Secrets being kept from them were never okay and the world was going crazy if her secret was Betel Geuse in her mirror trying to talk her into letting him out.

All Lydia could hope for was that it wasn't a mistake. She hoped more than anything Betel wasn't trying to build a fantasy up around her and with that thought her soft smile at what Betel had just said slipped from her face.

_Perhaps I should be a little more careful._

**4. Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing(3:17)**

It wasn't working. He knew it from the second her smile slipped that day. He had been telling her about his new French roommate and he knew the way he told it was a funny effing story but it didn't even get a damn giggle from her.

It was time to get desperate, because that's what he was. Desperate.

Waiting for her to call, Betel tried not to pace or fidget or look as desperate as he felt.

At long last she heard her whisper his name. She had never whispered like that before and Betel appeared in her mirror looking very confused.

It was obvious from the start she had been sleeping and his confused look turned into a wide eyed look of wonder at her pajamas. He had never seen her in a clingy tank top and shorts but he wanted that to be her every day uniform from now on.

He was mildly aware of the look on her face but all he could do was say, "_Hey_ you... sexy thing."

**5. Weezer - Beverly Hills (3:20)**

Her nightmare was forgotten and she smiled slowly across her desk into her mirror.

"Hi." She said shyly.

"What's with the sad face, babe?"

"I just had a bad dream." Lydia muttered suddenly wishing she had had a happier face on when she called him. She didn't want him to start acting worried over her just to get access to her world. there was no more room for lies in her world.

"Yeah?" Betel had a look of concern on her face and it was hard for Lydia not to give in. "Wanna talk about it?"

Lydia hesitated. She had dreamed about moving away from the Maitlands and never seeing them again but that's not what she told him.

"I dreamed you were using me just to get to my world."

**6. The Cure - If You Leave (4:27)**

That was not what he had been expecting and his first response was "You were dreaming about me?"

Lydia frowned at him and Betel had the decency to look a bit sheepish.

"I'm not... using you exactly." He said, cringing at his dumb mouth.

"Just kind of?" Lydia's tone was deadly.

"I don't know what exactly you want from me." Betel muttered.

Lydia shook her head. "Nothin' Betel Geuse."

_That's twice!_

"Good bye Beej." She said and walked away from the mirror.

Betel watched her crawl under the covers feeling a pang of guilt in his stomach. What was he supposed to say? He had gotten into this with every intention of using her it wasn't his fault she got some girly feelings for him. And it sure as hell wasn't nice of her to look at him with those big adoring eyes and then make him feel like a load of shit by walking away like that.

He needed her looking at him like that again.

"Lyds, come on. Don't just walk away and ignore me like I'm not here." Betel called out, forgetting about her parents and the Maitlands.

"You aren't here. You're in my mirror." She muttered and then rolled over. Betel could take a hint. He would leave her alone but he wasn't done finding a way into the other world.

**7. Beck - The Information (3:59)**

It was useless making plans. All he could think of when thinking about ways to get to the mortal world was Lydia and that was going to drive him crazy. It just wasn't normal to be obsessing over someone like this. If Betel obsessed it was with a bitter, angry feeling in his stomach not this feeling of regret and loss.

When he couldn't take it any longer, Betel sat in front of Lydia's mirror with his arms crossed over his chest and waited for her to get home. Tapping his foot impatiently, he figured it was Friday and she worked every other Friday and if he remembered correctly she should be home soon.

That didn't happen.

From the view from her window he could tell it was way late in the night by the time she came waltzing back in like everything was normal.

"Where the hell have you been!?" Betel shouted, unable to contain himself.

"What are you talking about?" Lydia asked looking puzzled. "I have two sets of parents I explain myself to, don't tell me becoming my third set is all part of your plan to get me to let you over here. I can tell you right now that's not gonna work."

"Very funny. I have been bored out of my MIND while you've been off having fun without me!" Betel told her and she had to admit he did look very upset and... disturbingly jealous.

"Is that you trying to say something along the lines of... 'I missed you'?" Lydia questioned. "Because it's not coming across very clearly."

It seemed like Betel sat fuming for an eternity before he finally exclaimed, "Alright dammit! I fucking missed you!" Before stomping off to pout somewhere.

Lydia smiled to herself and decided to get ready for bed.

**8. The White Stripes - Ball and a Biscuit (7:17)**

The weeks after Betel's shouted confession were passed with secret smiles amidst their daily conversations. Adam and Barbara were growing worried with the increasing amount of time she spent in her room and sometimes tried to lure her out.

Lydia would feel awful for sending them away but Betel was intoxicating and she did not mind.

One night after they both said good night, Lydia was having a difficult time falling asleep as her thoughts kept straying towards Betel.

_Just say his name three times and he'll be here._

Lydia chewed on her bottom lip. The thought of him on this side of the mirror with her intimidated her.

Slowly sitting up, Lydia placed her bare feet on the floor and wondered if she needed to have him at the mirror for it to work.

"Betel Geuse." She whispered and gulped and waited to see if he would come to the mirror.

"Betel Geuse." That time she saw a shadow and she realized he was waiting to see what she was going to do. Was she going to just tease him like usual?

"Betel Geuse."

There he stood suddenly in front of her in his trench coat, ripped and faded trousers and a green shirt. Jumping back at the sudden proximity of him, Lydia leaned back and gulped.

_I hope this wasn't the wrong decision. Or at least a bad one._

Betel looked down at her and didn't say anything but that stare giving Lydia a hard time breathing.

He shrugged his coat off and placed it over her chair. When he stepped forward he blocked out the moonlight shining through her window and his shadow loomed over. She knew then she was right to feel intimidated but as he came closer she couldn't think of any place she would rather have him.

**9. Korn - Freak on a Leash (4:15)**

It wasn't long before Betel realized he had created a monster. There was always a freak trapped in Lydia and Betel realized if it wasn't for him it probably would have stayed there.

Groaning into her hair as she moved above him, Betel grasped her hips and let her have her filthy way with him. Again. For the hundredth time.

Soon after she had called him to her world the first time he offered to come clean with the Maitlands and her parents if it would make her feel better but something about sneaking around like this made her a freak.

And when she was straddling him making those noises and touching him just. Like. That...

Well he wasn't about to argue. Secrecy was great with him.

It wouldn't last long however. One night, the 'no loud noises' rule was forgotten and the door was swung open. If Betel wasn't already dead he had a feeling all four parental figures standing at the door would have tried their hardest.

**10. Ben Haper - Give a Man A Home (3:36)**

Lydia's mirror identical to Betel's was shattered and Juno saw to put Betel on strict probation.

In the Deetz household there was a feeling of house arrest as Lydia was grounded. Her bratty reply of "Being home was how I got into all this trouble" didn't exactly earn her too many kudos either.

The Maitlands watched all the going ons with worry. They worried they were all pushing Lydia away with each harsh lecture and judgment. That when she left for college or some dumpy old apartment, it would be the last they saw of her because of the things said when they caught her in the arms of Betel Geuse.

And they worried of the day when Lydia would call him again and he would be free to answer because it was inevitable. They knew by the way she stare off dreamily yet cry in her room when she thought no one could hear her.

They were all going to lose Lydia to Betel Geuse and it was becoming obvious how little they could do about it.


End file.
